game? You know anybody can get the better of you, sweetest."

"Yes," said Mr. Prohack. "I know I'm the greatest and sweetest imbecile
that the Almighty ever created. But I believe it."

"But _why_ should he leave you all this money? It doesn't stand to
reason."

"It doesn't. But you see the poor fellow had to leave it to _some_ one.
And he'd no time to think. I expect he just did the first thing that
came into his head and was glad to get it over. I daresay he rather
enjoyed doing it, even if he was in great pain, which I don't think he
was."

"And who do you say the woman is that's got as much as you have?"

"I don't say because I don't know."

"I guarantee _she_ hadn't lent him a hundred pounds," said Mrs. Prohack
with finality. "And you can talk as long as you like about real property
in Cincinnati--what is real property? Isn't all property real?--I shall
begin to believe in the fortune the day you give me a pearl necklace
worth a thousand pounds. And not before."

"Lady," replied Mr. Prohack, "then I will never give you a pearl
necklace."

Mrs. Prohack laughed.

"I know that," she said.